Keeping safe online

More and more Online Safety is a pressing part of the school’s safeguarding commitment to children. We need to nurture children capable of navigating online friendships and exploration with the tools at their fingertips to know what to do when something goes wrong - as inevitably, this will happen at some point in their lives.

At Riverside, we use a number of means to do this, which are detailed below, but if you need additional support explore the links below or get in touch immediately using the contact form - the best form of safeguarding is to talk to someone quickly.

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What we do to keep children safe online

  • In the curriculum

    We have a comprehensive online safety scheme of work called Switch On Online Safety, which is a comprehensive scheme of lessons started in Year 1 at the infant schools, and then picked up from Year 3 onwards.

    We start each Computing unit in Autumn 1 term covering these lessons so that before children work with software or hardware they are reminded of valuable lessons and tools that will keep them safe online.

  • In the school community

    Over the year we will highlight online safety initiatives in the school newsletters, so that families are constantly reminded of how they can support online safety in the home.

    On top of this, we hold parent workshops once a year offering advice and the latest guidance in regards to online safety.

  • Special events

    Every year we focus on Safer Internet Day highlighting issues to children in assembly and classroom activities that promote digital citizenship.

    We also have a crew of Year 6 Cyber Warriors as part of our leadership team who run assemblies through the year discussing issues that could affect children, e.g. cyber-bullying; being SMART online.

Links and resources

 

  • Internet Matters offers a wealth of resources and videos to help aid discussion in the home

  • The NSPCC have a wealth of advice about online safety that is very useful to support discussions at home

  • Common Sense Media gives parents and children’s opinions about games, books or films, helping inform discussion about their suitability for your children

 

Any concerns?

Do not hesitate to get in touch if something has/is happening online that you would like help with.